Conventional transportation reservation systems enable overbooking, which is the sale of access to transportation that exceeds the capacity of that transportation. Overbooking enables transportation companies to ensure that their vehicles are filled to or close to capacity based on the expectation that some transportation purchasers will cancel or otherwise not use their purchased access.
However, if no or only a few purchasers cancel and instead most decide to use their purchased access (i.e., more purchasers than space is available), the transport vehicle will not have enough capacity and some purchasers will be denied access despite their purchase. In the airline industry, overbooked purchasers can be scheduled on a later flight or even another airline in some circumstances, thereby ensuring the purchaser's access is fulfilled, albeit possibly at a loss to the transportation provider. Further, overbooking can generate bad will towards the transportation provider, particularly in the cruise industry where the number of cruise ships is limited. Accordingly, an overbooked passenger may not be able to be rescheduled onto another cruise ship because it may have a different destination and/or it may not sail for several days or even weeks later.
Accordingly, a new system and method is needed that more profitably provides for overbooking.